Sunday, December 11, 2005

The Seattle Mainstream Media Loves Reggie Watts

Reggie Watts is the singer for Seattle band Maktub. He has been profiled repeatedly by the local media but his band has never broken nationally. Seattle needed a safe, non-threatening black music scenester for their safe, non-threatening white media to fawn over and Watts stepped up, with the help of his well-connected early booster David Meinert.

Reggie Watts stands out in the lily-white Seattle rock scene.

Born in Germany, Watts grew up in Great Falls, Montana, the son of an African-American Air Force officer and his French wife. Maktub's music is like a half-baked Led Zeppelin with the short, paunchy, afroed Watts replacing Robert Plant as the sex god frontman. We're not buying it. Every second of media time these guys soak up blocks potential exposure for more worthy local acts.